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Doppelgänger, E.E.G. and Belladonna

Since some of us last met at Conway Hall, there’s been a flurry of coverage for Doppelgänger and E.E.G. But we are thrilled, first of all, to share news that some of you may not know: Belladonna won the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation at an award ceremony last Tuesday at the Warwick Arts Centre. Many congratulations to Celia!

The Financial Times ran a brilliant review of E.E.G. by Eileen Battersby: “Funny, angry, informed and intent on the truth, no voice is quite as beautiful as that of Daša Drndić”

Boyd Tonkin has written a profile of Daša and an excellent review of Belladonna in online culture mag The Arts Desk: You can read it here

A limited number of calendars are being printed. They are for sale at £8, or £10 including post and packing for addresses in the UK, and £12 including post and packing for addresses elsewhere. Calendars can be ordered by sending an email to [email protected]. Payment can be either

by bank transfer to The British Croatian Society, account 60566500 at Barclays Oxford City Centre branch, sort code 20-65-18, quoting your name as reference

or by cheque made payable to The British-Croatian Society sent to: Peter Elborn, Events Secretary, 5 Well Road, London NW3 1LH

Berislav Unveils the Eye-Popping Video to the First Part of his Catharsis Trilogy

Berislav is a Croatian dancer, actor, model and singer, whose output is utterly unique, with no greater evidence of this than his incredible video to his track I Gave My Life.

By the age of 9 he had developed a love for dancing and started attending Tihana Škrinjarić school of dance before a move to Austria saw his dancing talent develop yet further. At the age of 18 he returned to Zagreb where he began a modelling career and embarked on numerous projects with Croatian music artists as well as participating in theatrical productions such as Hair.

Determined to be the very best at everything he was involved with he moved briefly to Los Angeles to attend the Sanford Meisner acting school in 2012, leading to acting roles in TV series and a number of commercials. Having signed a record deal with Croatia Records in 2015, he enjoyed his first full forays into recorded music, his first single being “Singing that Rock n Roll”, a cover of a song previously recorded by Stijene and featuring what has now become something of a trademark lavish and theatrical video.

Bringing the story bang up to date, Berislav has forged a partnership with James Perri (aka Jimi Polo), the producer known for his work with David Guetta and Daft Punk, and the two of them started collaborating fully in 2017, the first fruits of which is “I Gave My Life”. The track is the first part of the trilogy, the beginning of a journey, the clash between life and death and also features in the documentary film, 14 Barriers about a Croatian War veteran. The accompanying video is a tour de force of action, emotion and, in the very truest sense of the word, fantastic visuals.

Berislav acts as an Art Director for Taja fashion brand since 2003 and is the owner of an exclusive Health Club.

Now that the holiday season is coming to an end, it is time to remind you that we would like to see your photographs for the 2019 calendarCroatia and exhibition.

We invite you to submit photographs in preparation for the British-Croatian Society's next calendarCroatia.

The calendar will be printed and for sale in November. There will be a launch party to which all photographers will be invited.

We are looking for photographs that show Croatia in all its variety, not only as a beautiful place for a holiday. Photographs are invited from professionals and amateurs of any nationality, in as high a resolution as possible. People, places, abstract - all subjects and techniques are welcome.

Please note that if you want your photographs to the considered for the printed calendar, they will need to be landscape format photographs. For the exhibition, photographs can be landscape or portrait.

High quality photographs can be taken on a smart phone, so please tell your family and friends about calendarCroatia 2019.

You can send up to 4 of your photographs, with the photographer's name and the title of the photographs, to us at [email protected].

Let us have your photographs as soon as you can, but not later than October 20.

New York's MoMA has a magnificent exhibition entitled Yugoslavia's Lost Utopias covering the country's monumental postwar architecture. It has been reviewed in this weekend's Financial Times. You may not be able to travel to see it, but the Financial Times article and other reviews are available online.

We wish you a happy summer and look forward to seeing you when our programme of events re-starts in September.

Our 2018/19 programme will start with HE Igor Pokaz, the Croatian Ambassador, talking about is first year in London.

In addition to the reception to mark the publication of our 2019 calendarCroatia in November, we already have lined up two book launches. And of course we will again host our traditional annual dinner in a prestige location.

"I am writing to you regarding our upcoming show " 3 Winters" which shares a story about a Croatian Family over hundred years and how the situation of the country has influenced their lives. After these weeks of rehearsals we now know so much about this beautiful country and have been lucky to count ourselves Croatian even if its just for a month.

I am writing to you to tell you about my current endevour. I am planning to record three violin concertos by the 18th century composer Ivan Mane Jarnovic or Giovanni Giornovich, as he was also known. He was probably a Sicilian, but his family name comes from Croatian. The recording with take place 20-22 June this year in Oxford.

Outside Croatia, where his music can sometimes be heard, he is almost completely unknown, which seems very strange for someone who was so famous, as he was, in the 18th century. Our recording aims to address this injustice.

All of the three Concertos we will record were published in London during Jarnovic’s period spent in England in the early 1790’s. This was around the same time when Joseph Haydn spent few years of his life in London. Some of the Concertos haven’t been published in the modern edition since 1790’s and only be found at the British Library in London. I am planning to go there, make copies of the microfilms and make the first modern edition of these Concertos.

I have set up a crowdfunding page on Justgiving website and wondered if you could spread the word with the good people from the British-Croatian Society, or indeed anyone else wishing to support our recording.

I am writing to you on behalf of Croatian Supplementary School (for children aged 5 to 14) in London. For the last 20 years we have been extremely lucky to be able to use rooms at the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in London's Conway Street for our weekly lessons.

However due to restructuring of the rooms at the Embassy and the imminent building work, we are looking for a new home from September and we are hoping that you might be able to help.

We are looking to hire two rooms (classrooms), in a community centre, school or a similar venue on Saturday mornings (term time only). Our classes run from 10.30 to 12.30 so we would need the venue for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours each Saturday. We need rooms with desks and chairs (suitable for children) and a whiteboard/ blackboard. We would also need some storage space to store all our books and materials.

We are currently based near Warren Street in north-west London and we would ideally like to stay within reasonable distance as it is convenient for all of our teacher and students to get to.

If you know of any place that might be suitable would you please let us know.

WHSmith Travel have selected Farewell, Cowboy by Olja Savičević as part of their Fresh Talent 2018 promotion, so readers in the UK—or visitors passing through airports and railway stations—have a special opportunity to discover this lively, affecting contemporary Croatian novel.

Some of you may remember Olja from the book launch at the embassy in 2015. Please do consider buying this new edition for yourself or as a present for English friends who may not have read a Croatian writer before.

In her debut novel, Savičević playfully transposes the genre of a traditional Western drama onto the contemporary world, challenging the omnipotent heroes of childhood and questioning what constitutes heroism today. Her steamy seaside hometown of Split provides the perfect backdrop for this tale of loss and redemption, redolent of transient glamour and unrealised small-town dreams.

Savičević’s prose, which is always relaxed and descriptive, and sustained with conversational ease, becomes increasingly beautiful in moments of high drama....The humour and sheer anarchy of the action combined with the comic exasperation, unforgettable characters and Dada’s wry acceptance of the way life happens to be, make this subversively appealing novel all the more profound; even, unexpectedly, beautiful.

Dazzling, funny and deadly serious, this perfectly pitched novel about the legacy of the Yugoslav war heralds the arrival of an exciting new European voice.....Savičević has a rare ability to speak of the deadly serious with a hedonistic lightness that lures you into a spirit of abandon, only to go on to deliver breathtaking blows of insight.

An exceptional musical event dedicated to some of the most popular works of Mozart is scheduled for London's Cadogan Hall on 29 March 2018 at 19:30 featuring the celebrated Croatian mezzo-soprano Renata Pokupić.

We need to have a list of those attending this event so please email your name(s) if you are planning to come.

BLACA HERMITAGE REINVENTED

Centuries ago, refugee Glagolitic monks found a safe haven in a cave in the rugged landscape of Brač Island's southern hillsides. From this humble start, their monastery grew and thrived over several centuries. In the mid 20th century, it took on a new identity as an eco-museum. The story of the Monastery is full of surprises. The plans for its reincarnation as an eco-museum make full use of the Monastery's fascinating past.

Pianist Ivana Gavric will be returning to the Wigmore Hall on Thursday 28 December as part of their London Pianoforte Series. She will be playing a programme of Haydn, Chopin, Grieg and Schumann. For more information and tickets please visit wigmore-hall.org.uk

We have now published calendarCroatia 2018from photographs from our members and friends. The calendar contains 25 beautiful photographs taken in Croatia.

To purchase a copy of the calendar, please email [email protected] with your postal address. The calendar will provide year-long pleasure and will make an excellent Christmas gift. The price is £15 for posting to UK addresses and £20 to the rest of the world.

We have also taken one of the photographs to make a Christmas card that is also available for purchase. The price is £10 for 8 cards including post and packing to UK addresses, £12 for the rest of the world.

One film made by 15 directors, Each one, after seeing the last minute of the previous one.

The Constitution

The story follows four people who live in the same building, but avoid each other because of the differences in their assets, sexual habits, nationality and religion.

The Liberation of Skopje

The horrors and suffering of the Second World War are portrayed in bittersweet terms through the eyes of 11-year-old Zoran, whose father has joined the partisans to fight the German occupiers, and whose mother becomes involved with a German officer.

Voevoda

A mother, forced to abandon her child and home, leads a rebellious band and inflicts her own justice in the brutal men's world of 19th century.

We invite you to send us photographs taken in 20017 in Croatia for a Christmas / New Year card, an exhibition and for a 2018 calendar.

25 photographs will be selected to feature in the calendar. One photograph will be selected for the Christmas / New Year card. In addition we will feature some 40 photographs in an exhibition to be held at the gallery of the Croatian Embassy in London on November 30. Calendars and cards will be available for purchase at the British-Croatian Society's annual dinner on November 23, at the exhibition opening and online.

We are looking for photographs that show Croatia in all its variety, not only as a scenically beautiful place for a holiday. Photographs are invited from professionals and amateurs of any nationality, in as high a resolution as possible. People, places, abstract - all subjects and techniques are welcome. High quality photographs can be taken on a smart phone, so please tell your family and friends about calendarCroatia 2018.

Please send up to 4 of your photographs with the photographer's name and the title of the photographs to us at [email protected].

Let us have your photographs as soon as you can, but not later than October 20.
If you have any questions, you can also contact us at this address.Here is the information for the latest THIRTEEN photographic exhibition.

The Nemon studio and archive (www.oscarnemon.org.uk) will be open from 3 to 5.30 on Saturday 16 September. Alice Nemon-Stuart will be talking about the displays and explaining how Nemon worked as a sculptor in the studio recreation. Tea and chocolate cake will be served and it will be possible to buy hand cast Nemon busts of Freud and Churchill from £30. Entry is free.

Friday 29 the studio will be open from 10.30am to 12 noon for Friday Sculpture and Music which will be a monthly event. Pianist Emma Holloway will be playing in the archive between 11 and 11.30. Refreshments will be served and entry is free.

Here is a link to a report by Dalibor Prancevic, a Croatian Art Historian who visited the studio in May.

Filip Šimenc is the grandson of my first cousin, Jozefina Dubravčić. He would like to find some kind of work in London, to extend his experience, and would welcome anything, with first choice being in the legal field of course.

Attached is an invitation letter (Croatian and English version) for the conference ‘MEETING G2.3 – CROATIA, FULL OF BUSINESS POTENTIAL’ that will take place on 6 - 8 November this year in Zagreb at the FORUM Zagreb congress centre.

The Lit Link Festival in Croatia is a three-day tour whose participants are writers, editors and publishers. This year the motto of the Lit Link Festival is “Despite Brexit” and the guests are British writers, editors and publishers. At previous festivals, guests have come from the following countries: 2013 – USA; 2014 – Canada; 2015 – France; 2016 – Italy. The festival consists of three evening readings in which both Croatian authors and British authors participate. Translations are completed beforehand and will be projected onto a large screen during the readings. The readings will take place in the northern coastal cities of Pula (29th June, Centar Rojc) and Rijeka (30th June, Astronomski centar), as well as the inland capital, Zagreb (1st July, Club Močvara/Mochvara).

The hosts of the festival are the Artistic Director of the festival Robert Perisic (Perišić), a writer whose works have been translated in England and the U.S., and the festival's coordinator, Ivan Srsen (Sršen), a writer, independent publisher and editor. The producer of the festival is the Croatian Writers Society.

The host on the stage will be Marko Pogacar (Pogačar), a writer and editor.

The Lit Link Festival plays out without a superfluous protocol, and in nice, informal spaces: "Dnevni boravak" in the Center Rojc in Pula, the Astronomski centar in Rijeka, and the club Močvara in Zagreb.

This is a conservation project led by Jurica Matijevic, Art Academy, Split, nine devoted young people, doing excellent work. We hope that the workshop will develop into an international project, like the one on Lopud.

One of our members, Tihana Borovcak Kovacevic, together with the Croatian Ambassador, will host Summer Business Networking Reception and launch of public relations and digital marketing company Globe Media Studio.

You are invited to a wonderful evening with light refreshments, a glass of Croatian wine and to meet the team behind this special event.

Before you go away we hope to see you at our final pre-summer event on July 6 when Peter Sanfey will answer the question "does South East Europe have a prosperous future?"

And please remember that again we would like your photographs for our calendarCroatia exhibition that will include, for the first time this year, a British-Croatian Society Christmas / New Year greetings card (details attached).

Our programme for September - December is already shaping up and the following are confirmed (full detail will follow later):

September 28 - Bojan Cicic, the renowned Croatian violinist, will be in conversation with Dr Bojan Bujic and will play for us

October 3 - James Gillespie will talk about Olga Watkins and her extraordinary life

A number of other events are being finalised, including this year's Chris Cviic Memorial Lecture that will be given by Professor Vlatka Hlupic.

If you are not a member and would l like to join, please go to our website www.britishcroatiansociety.com . It is not expensive to join and your contribution will help us to continue to provide a lively programme.

ArchaeoLink is a non-profit organisation founded in the Division of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

Our purpose is to liaise with the communities in which archaeologists work - enabling knowledge exchange and to assist those communities to obtain educational, societal and economic benefits from their archaeology and cultural heritage.

Commissioned by the EU funded, Mend the Gap, project, we have, over the last 14 months, been facilitating the community of Vela Luka, Korčula, to obtain educational and economic benefits from their magnificent site of Vela Spila. You can see some of what we have been doing here.

With our assistance, some of the residents have created leisure work-shops to encourage the off-season visitor. See them here.

Music Technology Workshop at the International Summer Music School Pucisca

One of our members, Nela Brown, is passionate about teaching music and coding and this summer she will be teaching the first ever Music Technology Workshop at the International Summer Music School Pucisca, which is taking place in Bol, on the Island of Brac (opposite Split) in Croatia from 21-31 August 2017.

The workshop will be delivered in English and Croatian and will be suitable for teenagers (15 years +) as well as adults.

No prior knowledge of music or programming is required, just laptop (PC or Mac), a pair of headphones (big ones are better than small ones!), and a USB key (so you can copy/ paste files quickly in case of a summer storm/ wifi outage.

The cost of the whole workshop is €290 (so super affordable, but does not include travel, accommodation or a visa if you need one for Croatia).

Night fishing in Ugljan came about after a visit by painter, writer and choreographer Danny Israel to this Croatian Island in 2014. “At night the fishermen illuminate the depths with powerful lights, to attract the fish to the surface. You never know what you are going to find….”

These paintings replicate the process with acrylic paint, and with sand and gravel for surface texture.

An informal talk between Ambassador Grdešić and the Croatian Diaspora living in the UK regarding Brexit that will take place on the 9th June, at 6pm, at the Croatian Embassy, 21 Conway Street, London, W1T 6BN.

On 27 July 2017 the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia shall open its doors to the Croatian diaspora and the Croatian minority communities from all over the world.

This Saturday was chosen in hope that many diaspora members shall be visiting Croatia during the summer, or participating in conferences, festivals and sports events that have been scheduled for that period.

The President of the Republic of Croatia, Mrs Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović has chosen this way to pay tribute to the important role played by the Croatian diaspora with its continuous help and support.

The President recognises the role and the significance of the Croatian communities abroad whose members are the real ambassadors of our country through their tireless promotion of their homeland, and their tireless support of Croatian culture and traditions throughout the world.

Strengthening and development of ties between Croatian communities at home and abroad is important for economic as well as general development of Croatia.

We would be grateful if you could notify your contacts through your regular channels as soon as possible so that interested individuals would have the sufficient time to plan their participation at this event.

The detailed programme shall be published on web page of the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia (www.predsjednica.hr) at a later date together with the information about the registration process and deadline.

The design of biology and robotics - Mirko Kovac

A discussion at the Royal Institution of the increasingly connected fields of science and design. This event will feature Daisy Ginsberg's multi-disciplinary work in synthetic biology and a talk from Mirko Kovac about how nature is influencing the design of aerial robots.

Mirko Kovac is director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at the Aeronautics Department at Imperial College London. His research interest is the conception and implementation of novel mobility solutions for robotics and agent based autonomous manufacturing. Before his appointment in London, he was post-doctoral researcher at at Harvard University and he obtained his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He has delivered keynote lectures and talks on bio-inspired robotics at leading research institutions and conferences world wide. He is also advisor to the UK government on the topic of aerial robotics and is regularly consulting on technology foresight and strategy development for industry.

A new book - The Adriatic Kitchen - features over 70 recipes inspired by the Croatian island of Korcula. The author is Barbara Unkovic, who is of Croatian & British decent. The idea is to introduce others to the wonderful cuisine of Croatia, with an emphasis on seasonality and the island of Korcula in particular.

Robin Harris is giving a talk in English entitled 'Stepinac - His Life and Times' at the Croatian Church this Sunday. He has written a well received book on the subject.

Archbishop Stepinac is a hugely important figure in Croatia, and the talk will no doubt straddle politics, history and religion. 5pm on Sunday 19 March at The Sacred Heart Church, 112 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2EF.

Vuk Eisen, an active member of the British-Croatian Society, died last year. Below is the text of the address Tim Eisen gave at his father's memorial service.

Memories of the Life of Vuk Eisen

20th December 1921 – 10th October 2016

Tim Eisen

Dad had a long life and really felt the history, culture and science of much of the 20th century.

He was born just after the First World War in Osijek, a town in the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. My grandfather was a political journalist who had endured a terrible time in the Austro-Hungarian army fighting in the Dolomites. My grandmother was a woman not to be trifled with and was the first of several strong women in Dad’s life. My grandparents had a troubled marriage, which ended when Dad and his brother Tomislav were still young. My grandmother remarried an architect, Bela Auer, and they had a wonderful daughter Eva, who was the first to appreciate Dad’s sense of humour and talent as a mimic.

Dad was a clever boy with a very active mind and I think he could have pursued many careers in the arts or sciences. In the event, he entered medical school just as the Second World War was engulfing Europe. Although he was the most unmilitary of men, Dad worked with the partisans and had to serve in 3 armies: the royalist Yugoslav army, the army of the wartime NDH and the communist Yugoslav army. As a liberal-minded (and humorous) intellectual, he was very unpopular with left and right and developed a loathing of extremism of all sorts. One defence was to poke fun at his oppressors; his impersonation of a Montenegrine political commissar was a perennial favourite, always able to provoke gales of laughter with our family in Zagreb decades later. Unfortunately, it is too risqué to relate now! In fact Dad’s sense of humour was rarely risqué: he once overheard two medical colleagues discussing a new recruit: The first described the new colleague as having a very dry sense of humour. The second asked “What, as dry as Vuk Eisen’s?” “Oh heavens, no, not as dry as that!”

Life after the war was hard for Dad, both politically and personally, so my grandmother instructed him to study in England, and he obeyed. Dad arrived in England in 1952 and stayed with his aunt Trudi and uncle Erhardt and their family in Bournemouth. Life in England suited Dad excellently and first his professional and then his family life went from strength to strength.

He enrolled at the CIBA foundation studying for a PhD with Cyril Keele and Brewen Lewis discovering how the kidney controlled blood pressure at the Middlesex Hospital in London and spent the rest of his career there. Dad played his part in international collaborations all over the world, particularly with Gunther Blumel in Munich. This eventually resulted in new and very effective drugs to control blood pressure and inflammation. As a dashing and amusing young man with an exotic accent, Dad was a popular teacher with the students. He particularly enjoyed mentoring clever young doctors and was delighted to follow the successful career of his protégés. His work was well recognised and he became an editor of the British Journal of Pharmacology. He was offered professorships in Bonn and

Manchester, although he took my mother’s hints that the family was best served by staying in London. For him, the family was usually the priority, the main exception being our summer holidays which were interrupted by Dad invariably taking a PhD thesis or two to mark– not an example I follow!

Dad always felt that most of the best things in his life came from Mum. They first met at a party and he decided that this was the woman for him because Mum was wearing a silk dress which she had ruined by pressing it on the wrong side with a hot iron. Dad felt that this must mean that Mum’s mind was on higher things. They had a comfortable early married life in Chelsea. Many happy times with friends and Mum’s lively extended family gave Dad a new perspective on life.

In many ways my parents had opposing characters. Although occasionally explosive, they often complemented each other’s foibles. Mum was optimistic and decisive, whilst Dad tended to be and cautious and glass half empty. I vividly remember driving with Dad complaining about “Old age storming in.” It was the morning after Harold Wilson had been returned to power in February 1974 and Dad was driving me to school – 42 years ago! My parents spent considerable effort making fun of each other and their children. At a lunch not long before she died, the conversation turned to what sports Mum had played as a young woman. “Competitive whisky drinking” came Dad’s sotto voce reply.

Dad’s own views on work, sports and simple pleasures had a definite teutonic rigour: all games had to have an educational or healthy purpose; Sunday lunches would be concerned with topics such as “What is the function of make-up?” Dad spent endless hours explaining science, painting, literature and architecture to my brother and me. This helped our school performance and enriched our holiday car journeys across Europe to visit family in Croatia and visiting our great friends the Sumptions in the South of France.

Retirement in the 1980s ushered in the most relaxed period of my parents’ life. Travel to family in Europe and South Africa and many happy months spent at their little finca in Mallorca delighted them both. When Mum died in 2001, I never expected him to survive for 15 years as a widower. Although these must have been lonely and difficult times, Dad appreciated that he was hugely lucky in having Julia as his daughter-in-law and took great delight both in Julia’s company and in his grandchildren. Dad remained well until the last month of his life and was able to come to dinner just 10 days before he died.

I will finish with what I have come to understand and respect as a defining aspect of my father’s character. It is something that I only saw clearly once war had again come to the land of his birth in the 1990s. Dad was clear who he thought was in the wrong; he was active in his support of the British-Croatian society and efforts to restore the cultural heritage of Croatia. He remained consistently clear-headed and resisted the easy prejudices of nationalism. My father was an intelligent, stubborn, indecisive, infuriating, humorous, kindly and humane man. He endured nationalism, fascism and communism and he remained liberal-minded and civilised throughout.

The fourth Croatian World Games are to be held in the Croatian capital Zagreb from 18-22 July 2017 with a global participation of more than 800 Croats from over 35 nations. Croatian World Games are amateur competitions where participants are Croats and their descendants throughout the world representing the country that they live in now.

Croatian World Games previously held in Zadar in 2006 and 2010 and in Zagreb in 2014, are organised by the Croatian World Congress and the State Office For Croats Abroad, in association with other Croatian institutions and associations in Croatia and among the Croatian diasporas.

All Croats wherever they may be are invited to participate in the Croatian World Games which include multiple sports disciplines; athletics, bowls, judo, karate, basketball, football, indoor soccer, volleyball, beach volleyball, swimming, rugby, handball, tennis, table tennis, taekwondo and water polo.

Our wish is for a great number of participants, as well as representatives of the Croatian organisations worldwide, to take the opportunity to compete in sports, and to share companionship and participate in numerous cultural and entertainment events that will contribute towards strengthening of their ties with the Republic of Croatia and enhancing of their sense of belonging to the Croatian people.

If you wish to take part in the upcoming Croatian World Games please visit the following link to register by 1 April 2017.

Information about the School of Croatian Language and Culture ‘Šibenik’, intended for the Croatian diaspora and Croatian students, is in the attachment, or can be viewed on the website www.sv-lovre.com.

A musical rendition of this charming story of how Hedgemond defends his humble house, while teaching us a lesson about caring for what we love.
Presented by Istros books and the children of the Croatian Saturday School, London.

Flora Turner-Vucetic looks at the art and life of Ivan Mestrovic (1883 – 1962), Croatian sculptor, painter, draughtsman, architect, writer and poet through a discussion of his portraits. In partnership with the Society of Portrait Sculptors.

17 November2016, 13:15Ondaatje Wing Theatre, National Portrait Gallery
Tickets: £3 (£2 concessions and Gallery Supporters) Book online, or visit the Gallery in person.
Doors open at 12.45. Lectures begin at 13.15 and last approximately one hour.

Ivan Meštrović (1883 – 1962) from an early age gained a significant international artistic reputation exhibiting at major exhibitions in Vienna, Paris, Prague, Rome, London, Zagreb and New York in the first decades of the twentieth century. His one man show in 1915 at the Victoria and Albert Museum was a sensational event received by public and critics with great acclaim. He also inspired a discussion between the modernists and traditionalists and even raising doubts in some quarters about the effect of his nudes on public morals. He became a celebrity with much demand for his portrait sculpture. One of the early acquisitions by what eventually became known as the Tate Gallery was a very important “Deposition from the Cross”. Michael Sadler, Rector of theLeeds School of Art, wrote in 1915: “In you, we salute the greatest sculptor of religious sculpture since the Renaissance”. Meštrović donated his self-portrait in plaster for the collection. Flora Turner-Vučetić revives the memory of the art and life of this exceptional artist through a discussion of his portraits which were in many cases an expression of his respect and admiration for his subjects.

Flora Turner-Vučetić is an art historian, museum curator, diplomat, journalist and writer. She has worked as a Senior Curator in the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, a broadcast journalist and editor at the Croatian Section of the BBC World Service, London, and as Counsellor for cultural, scientific and educational affairs at the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in London. She was one of the founders and a past Chairman of the British-Croatian Society and remains a Trustee. She is presently a writer, freelance journalist and researcher. She has organised numerous exhibitions in the UK and regularly publishes mainly on visual arts and British Croatian artistic and cultural relations, as for example Mapping Croatia in United Kingdom Collections, Archaeopress, Oxford, 2013. She contributed to the symposium about Ivan Meštrović at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2015 and to the special isssue of the Sculpture Journal dedicated to Meštrović in 2016.

A defining moment in European and transatlantic resilience: Croatian perspectives

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the President of the Republic of Croatia, will speak at LSEE on Tuesday, 11 October. The talk is entitled: "A defining moment in European and transatlantic resilience: Croatian perspectives". The event is free and open to all but registration is required. Register for the event here.

Dr Iva Tomićholds a tenure-track affiliation as a Research Associate at the Institute of Economics, Zagreb in Croatia. She was awarded a PhD degree in Economics from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2013. Her main research interests are labour economics, applied microeconomics and public finances. During her visit at LSEE she will be working on youth unemployment issues in European countries, with a special emphasis on the Croatian case and its cross comparison with other Southern European countries.

Attached you will find a press release about the UK premiere of a Croatian romantic comedy "All the Best” directed by Snjezana Tribuson to be screened at the forthcoming Raindance Film Festival in London.

London Film FestivalCroatian films at the London Film Festival and Raindance

On the Other Side - S one straneA middle-aged nurse in Zagreb receives an unwelcome phone call in this profound analysis unspoken fears and disguised trauma. Vesna is a middle aged nurse living in Zagreb with two grown up children – her son Vladimir, a married businessman with one son, and her daughter Jadranka, a law graduate who is about to be married. One day, Vesna receives a phone call from her husband Žarko in Belgrade. Neither Vlado nor Jadranka, who have had to hide their surnames, want to see him. After all, he appears to have been convicted of war crimes. But repeated phone calls between Vesna and Žarko edges them towards resurrecting their relationship. Dealing with the psychological aftermath of war, Zrinko Ogresta’s film is comprised of stately camera movements and carefully composed images, focusing on Vesna’s face and the spaces around her. He creates an introspective mood that perfectly captures the feelings of his characters. The result is a profound analysis of absence and of disguised trauma, of unspoken fears and their effects on a new generation.

If you wish to keep in touch with what is happening and would like to join our email list, please email [email protected]

The Bromley Guitar Society presents a classical guitar recital by the internationally renowned Croatian guitarist Zoran Dukic on Saturday 15th October 2016 at 7.30pm. This recital will mark his UK debut. He will be playing at St Mark's Church,Westmoreland Rd,Bromley, BR2 0TB. A few minutes walk from Bromley South Station.

The next British Croatian Society Meet-Up takes place on Thursday 22 September 2016.We will be meeting at a new venue, the Zander Bar in St. James’ Court Hotel, Westminster.

The intention is for people with any form of interest in Croatia to meet up, socialise and have a chat in an informal atmosphere. Whether you are a Croatian resident in London or someone who has recently visited Croatia for the first time and want to know more, this event is for you.

The event is of course open to both members and non-members. It provides an excellent opportunity for anyone to come and meet British-Croatian Society members and even to join if they so wish!

We have a reserved area on the left hand side of the bar. BCS members Brian Gallagher and John Pindar will be there from the start and you can find us by looking out for Croatian symbols.

Please note the Zander Bar is more formally known as the Bank Westminster and Zander Bar.You should use the entrance to the right of the hotel, marked Bank Westminster.

We’ll be there between 7.30 PM and 10 PM.

Come along for a chat about all things Croatian!

Address: 45 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6BS (Our venue is identifiable by four large flags)

The performance is based on the works of Vesna Parun, exploring her autobiographical works to give a chilling insight into the aspects of women's lives challenged by the patriarchal men of the Balkans. Performed by Vesna Tominac Matacic and directed by Ivan Leo Lemo, the piece is performed fully in Croatian with English subtitles and it has been gaining interest as a celebration of Vesna Parun's magnificent poetry and works.

The inaugural London Design Biennale opens in September at Somerset House with over 30 countries presenting newly commissioned works exploring the theme Utopia by Design.

A new collective of 8 Croatian designers ‘Utopian Collective’ are collaborating to create an interdisciplinary platform that looks at the role of design in society and as a catalyst for change. They also explore the experimentation inherent to collaborative work which encourages evolution.

The Government of the Republic of Croatia regrets the outcome of the British referendum in which a majority of voters supported the option of the UK leaving the European Union. Croatia will work to create a stronger and democratic European Union together with other member states, and will continue to further develop bilateral relations with the United Kingdom.

The legal status of Croatian citizens living and working in the UK will not change for a considerable time. There are no changes in travel regulations. The Croatian Embassy in London will provide information about any new important changes. You can contact the Embassy by writing to: [email protected]

Southgate Opera present Bizet's tragic tale of passion set in the sultry atmosphere of southern Spain. Sung in English with full orchestral accompaniment. TenorStephen Cviic takes the role of Don Jose in the performances on Wednesday 8th and Friday 10th June.

St Paul's Opera present a fully-staged version of Mozart's haunting comedy about the quest for love and enlightenment. Sung in German with English surtitles and dialogue, and accompanied by small instrumental ensemble. Picnicking space and bar available in the grounds before the show and during the interval. Tenor Stephen Cviic takes the role of Tamino.

Cortesi Gallery is delighted to present The Concrete Utopia: Ivan Picelj and New Tendencies 1961–1973, an exhibition that explores the neo avant-garde of the sixties and seventies via the work of Croatian artist Ivan Picelj (1924–2011). As one of the founders of the New Tendencies movement, Picelj’s work presents a fascinating opportunity to re-examine this exciting period.

Curated by Ilaria Bignotti, the retrospective features more than 40 works by Picelj, retracing the significant developments of one of the movement’s leading figures. Picelj is renowned for his persistent pursuit of the perfect relationship between perception and knowledge. Through his rigorous ideation and infinite patience for repetition, his forms become a concrete utopia, created as a better way to see, feel and experience the everyday in life.

We will be meeting at the National Theatre (downstairs) on the South Bank. There has been a recent refurbishment of the bar area which of course also serves tea and coffee.

The intention is for people with any form of interest in Croatia to meet up, socialise and have a chat in an informal atmosphere. Whether you are a Croatian resident in London or someone who has recently visited Croatia for the first time and want to know more, this event is for you.

The event is of course open to both members and non-members. It provides an excellent opportunity for anyone to come and meet British-Croatian Society members and even to join if they so wish!

We hope to bag a table early on in the bar area on the ground floor. BCS members Brian Gallagher and John Pindar will be there from the start and you can find us by looking out for Croatian symbols.

Sir Nicholas Jackson composes new opera based on William Thackeray’s The Rose and the Ring,

First public performancewill take place at Thackeray’s old school at The Charterhouse in the centre of Londonin May

Composer Sir Nicholas Jackson will be conducting his latest work, TheRose and the Ring on Wednesday 4 May at Drapers livery Hall, followed by the first public performance at The Charterhouse, London on Thursday 5 May. The opera, based on the novel by William Thackeray will include an array of young and exciting singers, including Kathleen Ferrier finalist Robyn Parton. They will be joined by the ‘Concertante of London’, led byMadeleine Easton, who has recently performed with the ‘English Baroque’ soloists and the ‘King’s Consort’.

The Rose and the Ring is based on one of Thackeray’s lesser known works, located in the fictional kingdom of Pafflagonia. Magic, royalty and romance dominate the themes of Thackeray’s novel. For Nicholas, it was an obvious choice for an opera, “My Grandfather had known Thackeray’s daughter and one day when rummaging through some books that I had inherited I came across a worn copy of her father’s The Rose & the Ring. Although written as a ‘children’s pantomime’ it is an equally good read for grown-ups with ingenious twists, I just couldn’t believe that this had not occurred to anybody else”.

The score is set to adaptations and orchestrations of Keyboard Sonatas by Scarlatti, a composer whose sonatas Sir Nicholas has had a long affiliation with. “As a harpsichordist I had performed and recorded about 40 of his sonatas and played through a great many more. I had also recently recorded for Nimbus my arrangement of one of his sonatas for Wind Quartet and Harpsichord. It has been said that all the sounds that Scarlatti would have heard, if he had opened a window of his house in 18th century Madrid, are contained in the microcosm of his 550 sonatas including flamenco dancing, castanets, the strumming of guitars and the wail of gypsy laments. But the gaiety of his music is sometimes overwhelmed by a surge of operatic passion.”

The public premiere of this work will be staged at The Charterhouse (5 May) in the very same building Thackeray would have visited daily during his time at the school in the 19thcentury. On 7 May the cast will be recording the work in its entirety to be released later in the year. It will undoubtedly highlight Jackson’s knowledgeable interpretation of Scarlatti as well as his dedication to raising the profile of exciting young artists.

We will be meeting the National Theatre (downstairs) on the South Bank. There has been a recent refurbishment of the bar area which of course also serves tea and coffee.

The intention is for people with any form of interest in Croatia to meet up, socialise and have a chat in an informal atmosphere. Whether you are a Croatian resident in London or someone who has recently visited Croatia for the first time and want to know more, this event is for you.

The event is of course open to both members and non-members. It provides an excellent opportunity for anyone to come and meet British-Croatian Society members and even to join if they so wish!

We hope to bag a table early on in the bar area on the ground floor. BCS members Brian Gallagher and John Pindar will be there from the start and you can find us by looking out for Croatian symbols.

The Elysian Singers, including tenor Stephen Cviic, conducted by Sam Laughton, present five centuries of penitential psalm settings from all around Europe: from France to Estonia, from Italy to Denmark. Mini-masterpieces by Mendelssohn (‘Hear my Prayer’) and Arvo Pärt (‘An den Wassern zu Babel’) rub shoulders with English choral favourites by Purcell and Howells.

Tenor Stephen Cviic, soprano Antonia Cviic and other members of St Paul's Opera present an evening of operatic highlights with a romantic theme, including excerpts from Bizet's Carmen, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and music by Handel and Puccini, among others. Tickets include a glass of wine.

You are reminded that you are invited to the Annual General Meeting and a committee meeting of the British-Croatian Society to be held on Tuesday 8 March at 18.30 at the Croatian Embassy, 21 Conway Street, London W1T 6BN.

The meeting will include a report of the year and plans for the future, an update on the Society's membership and finances, as well as the appointment of trustees and committee members.

We are always looking for new ideas and would very much welcome your presence.

Tena Stivicic will be one of the panellists atMultilingual Imaginations, an event organised to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Asymptote, the international journal of translation. This will take place at Waterstones in Piccadilly on Wednesday March 27 at 19-00 (tickets £5). Further information can be found at www.asymptotejournal.com/events.

Eastern Europeans for Dummies will be performed by There There - a 50% Romanian 50% Serbian theatre company - at Rich Mix on 18 March.

In anticipation of the EU referendum, Eastern Europeans for Dummies dissects immigrant stereotypes perpetuated by the politicians and the media. The project is supported by Arts Council England, Rich Mix, the Romanian Cultural Centre and Counterpoints Arts. Further information at www.richmix.org.uk

University School of Croatian Language and Culture in Zagreb, June 25 - July 22. School of Croatian Language and Culture, Novi Vindolski, July 18 - 29. For further information please see the attached notices or contact Professor Lada Kanajet Simic ([email protected]).

Elvis Stanic, jazz guitarist and accordionist from Opatija, appeared on last Saturday's BBC Radio 3 Jazz Line-Up with his international group JazzExTempore Orchestra in the composition 'Lanziamentos del Verde'. To hear it go to www.bbc.co.uk/programmes

Leap Summit will gather more than 1,000 young people who are entrepreneurs, NGO leaders, students, leaders and opinion leaders in their respective communities. Main themes of the Leap Summit will be connected to innovations, entrepreneurship, modern technologies, career development and success stories. The Summit is under patronage of President of Republic of Croatia and is highly supported by University of Zagreb. The Leap Summit international conference hopes to gather a lot of Croatian participants who live outside of Croatia, to exchange ideas and positive experiences.

MIMIKA is excellent jazz orchestra formed from a younger generation of London based jazz soloists and run by Croatian composer and conductor Mak Murtić and singer Maja Rivić. They will play a gig in one of the best jazz clubs in London, Vortex in Dalston.

The Croatian Embassy has passed to us information about the project Vukovar Water Tower - Symbol of Croatian Unity received from representatives of the City of Vukovar. For further information, please contact the City of Vukovar:

This is what the BBC says:
Adrian Chiles converted to Catholicism ten years ago, but wonders whether his choice of church was an accident of birth and geography. If he had been born in Istanbul or Jerusalem, would he have been equally happy being a Muslim or a Jew? In this first episode, he visits the stunning Dalmatian coast, where he meets up with his Croatian mum and reveals how he got the nickname Holy Joe.

Next stop is Istanbul, where he has fun in the Grand Bazaar before heading out on the Bosphorus with a Muslim fisherman. During Eid al-Adha, a major Islamic festival, Adrian struggles to watch the celebratory sacrifice. He travels to Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Sukkot, and then moves on to Tel-Aviv to get drunk with a gay, atheist, Jewish celebrity chef. His final stop is an Evangelical concert by the Dead Sea, attended by Christians from all over the world.

Peter Frankopan's 'The Silk Roads' is number 1 in the Daily Telegraph's UK non fiction list. We hope to have a talk by Peter in our 2016 programme. For more information about the book and Peter, please go to www.bloomsbury.com

We have a full programme planned for 2016. If you are not a member and would like to support us by joining, please go to our website www.britishcroatiansociety.com.

2015 – a bumper year at the British-Croatian Society

A challenge: how many Croatian writers’ books are available to read in English? (we will give you the answer in a moment) London has seen Croatian authors, from established figures such as Daša Drndić to some of the many exciting new writers, at the Croatian stand at the London Book Fair each year. This generates a lot of interest. We spotted an opportunity to help British readers with an interest in Croatia, but no knowledge of Croatian, by publishing Writing Croatia. This lists Croatian fiction translated into English, as well as fiction set in Croatia by non-Croats, and a section of non-fiction books.

The answer to our question is that we have so far found 108 books by Croatian fiction writers that are available in English listed in Writing Croatia (there are probably more – so if you know of some we have missed, please tell us).

Writing Croatia is a follow-up to Mapping Croatia, a guide to Croatian works of art in UK museums and galleries, which we published as part of the Welcome Croatia festival in 2013. There are many more Croatian works in the UK than you might think, most of them in public museums to be seen free of charge. If you would like copies, both are available free of charge by emailing us at our address below.

How can Croatia make an impact in the UK? It is not easy. One way we tried for the first 6 months of 2015 was to build on the Croatian involvement with the London Book Fair, adding to it other events and branding them as

creativeCroatiabringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015

Various organizations were involved - the embassy fielded many of them – and we used the logo on our activities. The highlight was the embassy’s inclusion of the bronze sculpture of the young athlete recovered from the Adriatic in 1999 in the British Museum ‘Defining Beauty’ exhibition.

With the embassy we organized creativeCroatia events such as the concert with Diana Brekalo and friends that raised nearly £1,000 for the English section of the library of the school in Gunja destroyed by floods, and the presentation by Vanja Žanko at the ArtEco Gallery that brought us bang up to date with the contemporary art scene in Croatia.

It is always good to hear Dr Ivan Grdesić, the Croatian Ambassador, talk. We put him together with Peter Sanfey, a senior economist at EBRD (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) at an ‘in conversation’ event. EBRD has invested 3.1 billion euros in Croatia so bringing them together provoked a good relaxed discussion of current political and economic issues (if you want to know more about EBRD, you can do so at www.ebrd.com/croatia.html).

EBRD has been a good partner of the British-Croatian Society over the years in hosting the Chris Cviić memorial lecture. Chris was an influential figure on Croatian and Balkan issues and at one time worked at EBRD. This year Boris Vujčić, the Governor of the Croatian National Bank, gave a detailed presentation on the economy.

Tena Stivičić, one of Croatia’s foremost literary figures, later in the year appeared at another ‘in conversation’. With Roy Cross (a former British Council Director in Croatia) they talked about her play ‘3 Winters’ that ran to excellent reviews at the National Theatre, as well as ranging more widely over her work as a playwright.

It is always exciting to find someone who has been profoundly influenced by Croatia. Melanie Hodge is such a person. Melanie has taken the Croatian naïve tradition of reverse oil paintings on glass and made it her own. Her British-Croatian Society exhibition ‘Though A Looking Glass’ at Conway Hall was, according to Martha May of Conway Hall, “one of the most popular exhibitions we’ve held”. For more on Melanie and her work, please go to www.mjhodge.co.uk, or follow her on instagram: Melanie hodge; Twitter: @mjhodge: or Facebook: MJHodge Art and Illustration.

Flora Turner’s knowledge and appreciation of the arts is always impressive and she was on good form when she delivered a talk entitled ‘The Painted Coast’. With superb illustrations, she introduced the audience to the works of British painters in 18th, 19t and 20th century who visited Istria and Dalmatia. Earlier in the year she was the key component in the British-Croatian Society supported Victoria & Albert Museum symposium on Mesštrović, marking the 100th anniversary of his V & A exhibition in 1915.

The Society’s annual dinner was held this year at the prestigious East India Club, an extraordinary ‘home from home for gentlemen’ in the heart of London’s clubland. There can hardly be a more old-fashioned English location for a British-Croatian Society event!

Sensationally good photographs in our final event of the year: photographingCroatia brought together at the embassy the best of the photographs taken in Croatia submitted to us by amateurs and professionals. A fun event to bring to a close a good year for the British-Croatian Society.

Adriatica.net looking for help at their stand on the World Travel Market

Adriatica.net will have their stand on the World Travel Market and have asked if we know anyone that speaks Croatian and that lives in London that would be available to work on their stand for the duration of the fair – 2-5 November from 9am to 6pm at London Excel. The person will have to distribute brochures and help with enquiries.

Please, do let me know if you know someone and we will then put them in contact with Adriatica.net.

Fresh from being awarded 'Record of the Year' for her Grieg Piano Works disc by the Grieg Society and the Norwegian Ambassador in the UK last week, pianist Ivana Gavric will be performing Grieg's ever-popular Piano Concerto this Thursday, 8th October, at St James' Piccadilly at 7-30pm.

On Friday a memorial was unveiled in Plymouth to Michael Foot, a previous Patron of the British-Croatian Society and a keen supporter of Croatia. The Society made a modest contribution to funding for the memorial.

In THIRTEEN, a diverse group of amateur and professional photographers work without the constraint of a single theme, each showing one side of their creativity. The images in the exhibition span a selection of photographic genres and techniques - colour or monochrome, traditional darkroom processing or digital manipulation.

For each of these photographers, in addition to the artistic and technical choice of subject and method, taking photographs is a means of individual expression - each image has a unique personal stamp.

Viewers are invited to consider each image on its own as well as in relation to the group, for their visual pleasure.

Croatia will again have a stand at the London Book Fair in April and Croatian literary events will take place at the Fair and elsewhere. The Tristram Bates Theatre, just off Leicester Square, is an ideal intimate small theatre for the following event based on the English version of Olja

Thursday 16April, 1.00-2:30pmRehearsed Reading of the play 'Farewell, Cowboy'A one-off event as part of the London Book Fair
adapted from the novel by Olja Savičevićat the TRISTAN BATES THEATRE, 1A Tower St, London WC2H 9NP

A Rehearsed reading of Farewell, Cowboy: the story of a suicide, a quest for truth, a reason for revenge and a wild love affair. One of the most popular Croatian novels of recent years is being launched by Istros Books during the week of the London Book Fair.

This one-off performance brings together the director of the original theatre adaptation, Ivica Buljan, and two of Croatia’s most exemplary contemporary actors, Nataša Janjić and Marko Cindrić, for a reading in English for the very first time. The performance will be followed by book signing with the author, Olja Savičević, and a glass of wine to toast the launch!

BOOK YOUR PLACE BY CALLING THE BOX OFFICE ON 020 7240 6283 OR BOOKING ONLINE HERE

To mark the centenary of the hugely important exhibition of Ivan Mestrovic in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1915, the Victoria and Albert Museum is holding a symposium devoted to Ivan Mestrovic on Wednesday 24 June. It is organised in cooperation with the Mestrovic Museums in Croatia and three of their curators will give a paper. The speakers will include curators from the V&A, and specialists for sculpture and architecture from the UK and abroad.

It will be a fairly intimate event, with a roundtable format, and we hope interesting ideas will be exchanged. It is free of charge, but places are very limited, and an early registration is essential. To register please contact creativeCroatia at [email protected].

An influential figure in Croatian avant-garde, Vlado Kristl’s work from his ground breaking animations produced at the Zagreb Film animation studio to his first live action film General I resni Clovek / The General, that was banned in 1962, will be shown alongside works by his contemporaries from the active Cine-Club movement in Croatia including Ante Verzotti, Milan Šamec, Mihovil Pansini, Tomislav Gotovac, Vladimir Petek and Ivan Martinac.

Kristl began filmmaking after his involvement in the abstract art movement EXAT 51, starting at the famous Zagreb Film studio he produced early films such as Krada dragulja / Great Jewel Robbery 1959 and his iconoclastic Cervantes adaptation Don Kihot 1961, a remarkable animation that radically reduced the source material recasting the Don Quixote and Sancho Panza against an abstract barren landscapes and fighting a rampant military.

His first live-action film General I resni Clovek / The General, an absurd drama set in a prison camp see Kristl as the lead inspiring an insurrection. The general of the title, whose appearance is heralded with laugher, bares an uncanny resemblance to President Tito that lead to the instant banning and destruction of the film – but not before a copy was smuggled out of Yugoslavia quickly followed by Kristl’s own departure.

Illustrated talks will explore the legacy of Vlado Kristl, EXAT 51 and the Croatia Cine-Clubs with film historian and persident of the Croatian Film Club Association Hrvoje Turkovic followed by a discussion with curator and researcher Branka Benčić.

Tena Štivičić's play 3 Winters is at the National Theatre from November 26

From the remnants of monarchy to Communism, democracy, war and the EU: Croatia 1945-2011. The Kos family argue, adapt, fall in and out of love.

World after world is erected and torn down around them. The one constant is the ivy-clad house in Zagreb, built by aristocrats, partitioned, owned by all, owned by a few; witness to four increasingly educated and independent generations of women.

But when the family assemble for Lucia's wedding, Alisa learns that her nouveau-riche brother-in-law has bought the once nationalised house. For the bride this is progress, for her sister it's a shady act of greed. For their principled parents, finally, it's one battle too many.

Against a country in turmoil, Tena Štivičić's 3 Winters creates the portrait of an eclectic family, held together by the courage to survive.

Sick of life in a war-torn Croatia, guided by MTV hits and Hollywood sitcoms, Stefica takes on a new name and embarks on a quest for an American education, and ends up in a Dublin lap dancing club. With frankness and humor, she teaches us the tricks of the trade and shares secrets she can't tell anyone else.

Based on real experiences, written and performed by Mirjana Rendulic (Amber; RTE, BBC 4), this piece dispels easy preconceptions about exotic dancers. After a successful tour in Ireland, Stone's Throw bring this compelling new show to Camden Fringe Festival.

The Play is suitable for 16+; minimal adult content.

'A silver award winner at New York Radio Festivals 2014'

'4 stars' The Irish Times

'Delivered by an instantly likeable Rendulic... it is captivating.' Sunday Times

The Croatian Supplementary School has been taking part in a research project with Goldsmiths, University of London, entitled ‘Critical Connections: Multilingual Digital Storytelling Project’, involving 5 supplementary schools, 5 mainstream schools and 3 overseas schools. This two year project (2012-2014), funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, involves pupils in creating and evaluating digital stories, developing skills in language and literacy as well as more critical and sophisticated use of multimedia tools. It is innovative and exciting work which supports schools in engaging learners and in developing a curriculum which is attuned to the needs of culturally diverse societies and a more interconnected and interdependent world.The Film Festival at Goldsmiths to celebrates and discusses pupils’ work. The school students have created digital stories in a range of languages (Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, English, English as a second language, French, German and Greek).

Six pupils from the School's oldest group (11-15) have created two short bilingual films (3-5 min):

A Journey to Croatia: Did You Know?

Happy Easter

This project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, has involved pupils from five supplementary schools, five mainstreamschools and three overseas schools and the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, English, English as a second language, French, German and Greek)

The Croatian Chaplaincy is organizing a collection of financial assistance for those affected by the devastating floods. During this week you can send donations to the Chaplaincy’s account:
The Croatian Church, Sort Code 50-21-01, Account Number 57228701.
Please advise them of your donation by e-mail [email protected] so that they can forward them next week to the Caritas of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Should you wish to send your donations directly you can do that to the following accounts: Caritas in Croatia, account IBAN HR05 2340 0091 1000 8034 0, reference number 175Caritas in Bosnia and Herzegovina account IBAN BA39 338 690 481 206 3318, SWIFT CODE: UNCRBA 22.
They will also be collecting donations during the Sunday Mass on the 25th May 2014 at 4 pm in the Sacred Heart Church, 110 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2EF for the flood affected communities in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Thousands of people are left homeless, without food, water, and warm and dry clothes due to severe flooding in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. They need your help! Donate to the Red Cross organisations which are leading the humanitarian efforts in the region:Croatian Red Cross:
IBAN: HR 6923400091511555516
SWIFT: PBZGHR2X
FULL BENEFICIARY NAME : HRVATSKI CRVENI KRIŽ,
FULL BENEFICIARY ADDRESS: ULICA CRVENOG KRIŽA 14, P.P. 93, 10001 ZAGREB
You can also make an online payment via credit card for “Pomoć za poplavljena područja u Hrvatskoj/Srbiji/Bosni i Hercegovini“ here. Red Cross Serbia:
Instructions for payments in EUR, GBP, USD are here (select English in upper right corner).Red Cross Bosnia and Herzegovina:
IBAN CODE: BA391610000000850119
SWIFT CODE : RZBABA2S
FULL BENEFICIARY NAME : CRVENI KRIZ FEDERACIJE BIH SARAJEVO
FULL BENEFICIARY ADDRESS: NEDIMA FILIPOVICA 9, SARAJEVO
More information and news are here (google translator is available in right sidebar under ‘Izaberite jezik’).

The ZKM theatre company from Zagreb will be performing Chekhov's The Seagull in Croatian with English surtitles on Saturday, May 24 at the Nottingham Playhouse. For details and how you can buy tickets (£13 or £11 concessions), please go to Notingham Playhouse

Vera Stevens, the winner of the Welcome Croatia Festival photographic competition "Croatia through the lens", will now have her own exhibition at the Croatian Embassy and you are invited. If you wish to attend the opening at 18:00 on April 17, please email [email protected] by April 14.

The Croatian language school for children aged 5 to 14 will re-open in January 2014. The school is situated at the Croatian Embassy in London, 21 Conway Street, W1T 6BN. The lesson are held there on Saturdays and groups and timings will be confirmed at a later date, and will depend on the number of children enrolled. For more information please visitwww.cro-school.org.uk, or contact Ivana Capps on 07949 772314 or email [email protected]

Over £3,000 has been raised by the British-Croatian Society in response to our appeal for donations to support the Dubrovnik Foreign Circle's proposal to provide the Dubrovnik Hospital children's unit with a spirometer.

This September my husband and I went first to Vis where we had been invited for the ceremony of the reopening of Fort George. William Wenkel, the young London-based businessman and Swedish naval reserve officer, who has invested heavily in the restoration of the fort and has a 25 year concession to run it as a cultural and recreational centre, asked Malcolm to advise on the contents and layout of a museum. Housed in the fort itself the museum is to cover the three main periods of the military history of Vis; the occupation and fortification by the British at the beginning of the nineteenth century; its use as an Austrian naval base; and by the allies and partisans in the Second World War. Besides the museum the fort will have a gallery for various local or international artists in residence to exhibit their work. There will also be concerts, facilities for meetings, conferences and receptions, with a restaurant, wine cellar and terrace bar and discotheque.

Almost five years had passed since our last visit to the fort, then in a sad state of neglect and disrepair and overgrown. So, when soon after our arrival on Vis, William and his team took us to the fort to show what progress had been made, we were more than pleasantly surprised. Under the guidance of the Split conservationist Sanja Buble, and in spite of the many bureaucratic hurdles to be surmounted, the inevitable delays and complications with the excavations and reconstruction, and escalating costs, much has been achieved. But the work is far from finished and more costly work remains to be undertaken. What has been done so far is a very considerable achievement, realising the fort's potential as one of the most splendid venues for entertainment and cultural activity in this part of the Adriatic. The mayor of Vis, Ivo Radica, has been supportive from the start when he interested William in the fort as a place to host parties for the yacht weeks, the primary business of William and his partners, the profits of which are being invested in the restoration. The Vis municipality has made an essential contribution by asphalting the road to the fort and laying a pipeline to supply water.

On the evening of September 6, 200 years since the British built the original fort in 1812-13, with fanfares and the beating of drums by a Croatian naval band, Admiral John McAnally, president of the Royal Navy Association, formally ordered the gate of the fort to be opened. Instead of a salute by cannon, there followed the explosion of fireworks on the roof of the fort.

The carefully choreographed and symbolic opening ceremony was witnessed by an international gathering of guests, including the mayor and local dignitaries, Croatian Navy officers representing the President of the Republic, Ivo Josipovic. and the British Ambassador to Croatia and British military attaches. Mingling with these official quests were retired Swedish naval officers and numerous other Swedish friends and family members of William Wenkel and his business partners, British with homes on Vis, and a number of representatives of Austria in nineteenth century uniforms, including one magnificent individual in an admiral's uniform with sideburns to match (reminding one of Gilbert and Sullivan). When the guests were assembled on the roof terrace, Admiral McAnally delivered a speech, after which the Union flag was lowered and replaced by the flag of Croatia by Croatian Navy officers. The Admiral then presented the key of the fort to the Commodore Robert Hranj, commanding the Croatian Navy, who then gave a speech and handed it on to the Mayor of Vis, Ivo Radica, who in turn entrusted it to William Wenkel.

After that the sit down dinner was hosted on the top terrace with all night partying for younger members until early hours of the morning.

The Welcome Croatia Sir Arthur Evans seminar at the Ashmolean in Oxford last week was a great success. For those who were unable to attend, you might like to see the text of the introductory session from the Director of the museum, Dr Christopher Brown. It is attached to this email.

Sir Arthur Evans is today mostly remembered for his archaeological work on the island of Crete, and especially his excavations at the so-called ‘Palace of Minos’ at Knossos. But before Knossos, there were many other regions and time periods that attracted his interest.

Influenced by his father’s diverse antiquarian interests – the famous prehistorian Sir John Evans – young Arthur travelled extensively across Europe, while still an Oxford History undergraduate. His first visit to Croatia was in the late summer 1871 with his brother Lewis as part of a larger trip that included Austria.

Evans returned to Croatia in 1875, again joined by his brother Lewis. That was the beginning of a journey through Bosnia and Herzegovina which he later published as a book to gain an enthusiastic response by the press and critics of the time. The book was widely read and even quoted in Parliament – Evans became an authority in the region ‘after a month’s travel and a single book’.

While in Croatia, Evans visited Zagreb, Sisak, and Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik). He was interested in everyday life as his writings and drawings suggest. For the archaeology of the region, especially in Dalmatia, and Evans’s efforts to bring it to light and make it accessible to the wider world, you will hear more later this afternoon by our distinguished speakers, Professor John Wilkes, Dr Susan Sherratt, Dr Susan Walker and Dr Helena Tomas.

The most celebrated period of Evans in Croatia was by far the years between 1878 and 1882, when he worked as correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. In 1878 he married Margaret Freeman and together they made Ragusa their home, where Arthur had taken a 20-year lease on a beautiful house overlooking the sea, called Casa San Lazzaro.

Evans came to dislike Austrian rule as much as the Ottoman. He would write: ‘The people were treated not as a liberated, but as a conquered and inferior race; their sense of right – which they do possess in a remarkable degree – is simply trodden underfoot.’ His anti-Austrian reports and activities led to his imprisonment and eventual expulsion from the area.

In 1932, at the age of 81 and after an absence of fifty years, Evans revisited Croatia with his sister-in-law Helen Freeman. He flew to Zagreb from where he wrote: ‘the traveller arriving by air, looks down on what is now a city of over a quarter of a million inhabitants, spaciously ‘town-planned’, with a bright garden band stretching to its centre, and interspersed with fine public buildings…’. Evans’s journey ended with a visit to Ragusa where he was welcomed as a hero. There he saw his old house, garden, and the prison where he was incarcerated in 1882. Such was Evans’s love for Ragusa that his half-sister and biographer, Dame Joan Evans would write that ‘for many years he had felt that he would best find rest in the flowery graveyard, barred by the shadows of Cypresses, that lies outside the walls of the city’. Although his attention progressively shifted to Crete, Evans never abandoned his interest in Dalmatia and the region as a whole.

The influence of Sir Arthur Evans extends far and beyond the realm of Minos and the island of Crete and even that of archaeology. His liberal views on the political situation in southeastern Europe and his knowledge on the people, the land and the different cultures made him an expert of the complex history of that part of the world.

The Ashmolean’s half-day symposium on ‘Sir Arthur Evans in Dalmatia’ presents us with a great opportunity to explore his travels in the region and to look at contemporary Croatian archaeology in celebration of Croatia’s accession to the European Union on the 1st of July.

It gives me particular pleasure to welcome the Croatian Ambassador Dr Ivan Grdešić (and Mrs Grdešić) to the Ashmolean on this special occasion. Finally, I should like to thank Dr Yannis Galanakis and ‘Welcome Croatia’ for organising today’s symposium, and Archaeopress for their financial support of the event.

Shearsman Books are about to publish bilingual edition of small selection of Tin Ujević's poems translated by Richard Berengarten and Daša Marić. Tin's poems have hardly been translated into English, and this is the first real attempt to do so seriously, even though on a small scale. Richard's translations have been published on several Croatian websites, most significantly in the cultural and academic web-journal "[sic]", a venture of the University of Zadar. There is also an extended critical and interpretative essay on Tin on the same website, which is quite possibly the first serious attempts by a British literary scholar to approach his work.

These translations have been widely circulated informally and on the web. For example, an enterprising English teacher in Croatia has been using some of these poems to help her pupils learn English. As the charming performances by these children suggest, Richard's translations retain the melos of Tin's poems.

I would like to inform the members of the British Croatian society about an important project worthy of our interest and support. It regards the future development and the preservation of the beautiful and unique island of Vis It is particularly interesting for the British Croatian Society because the island’s place in two crucial periods in the British history. It served for a short time as a British base in the Napoleonic wars, from which time there are still the remains of several British fortifications, in need of restoration. Furthermore the island served as a secure base for the Allied air forces during the last years of WW2. Until a year ago, while they were still capable of undertaking it, British veterans from that war (some of whose lives were saved once they reached Vis) made an annual visit to the island to commemorate this episode and honour their comrades. However, Vis has a much older history, in relation to which a local volunteer cultural association ‘Lavurat za poja’ (‘To labour for the fields’) successfully organised an international symposium called “ Anatomy of an Island”, supported by the municipalities Vis and Komiza, at the end of September 2012.

The purpose of the symposium was to revaluate the local historic and environmental legacy and develop ideas and proposals for the intelligent preservation and use of existing historical attractions, to create and give a valuable cultural content to the island’s tourist industry, and to prevent undesirable and uncontrolled overdevelopment. For the introductory symposium the organisers gathered an impressive group of specialist lecturers in the fields of archaeology, architecture, economics and history who analysed different aspects of the island from their particular points of view. The symposium, apart from local inhabitants, was attended by 200 participants amongst them 32 students of architecture from Japan, Croatia and Slovenia. The lecturers worked for the second part of symposium with the students divided into 6 groups to develop ideas arising from the lectures during the first week.

Among the specialists was one of the most famous Japanese architects, Prof. Kengo Kuma, who has two architectural studios in France and a chair at Tokyo University. He talked about his work in small and delicate environments. He was followed by Prof. Radovic, also teaching architecture in Japan, who talked about world trends in sustaining small environments. Apart from them one of the best known architects and selector for Venice Biennale 2010 Arch. Kazuyo Selima joined the symposium during its seminar week where she worked with the students.

Archeologists Boris Chargo, Lorenzzo Guzzardi from Siracusa in Sicily, Mirosalv Katic, Dinko Radic and other well-known archaeologists saw possibilities in enhancing the idea of the antique Greek colony of Issa, the oldest urban development in Dalmatia dating from 2400 BC. Ancient Issa, the outlines of which are still visible, was created when Greeks from Syracuse in Sicily decided to establish colonies along the Adriatic sea routes to facilitate trade with the Northern Adriatic . The Greek colonisation began with the development of the town and port of ancient Issa, which subsequently served as a starting point for further settlements such as Trogir and Stobrec. Issa was founded approximately at the same time as the Aegean Greeks founded Pharos. The archaeologists talked about antique Issa’s significance, explaining its layout and purpose, and how to read what is left of it. In the open debate that followed, all the participants in the symposium were invited to discuss how the site could be better preserved and made more interesting as a tourist attraction. Today the site of ancient Issa, near the central part of the town and port of Vis, is still not completely excavated, and what has been is rather neglected , certainly not well enough presented to attract much attention, except from dedicated archaeologists.

However the Greek site and its preservation was only one of the themes of the symposium. Other lecturers offered various insights on the island’s history, economy and architecture. The British historian, Malcolm Scott Hardy, author of the book “The British and Vis”, talked about some recent research placing the island in the context of political and military developments involving the British, Austrians and Russians exactly two hundred years before in 1812..

Considering that many of the islands along the Adriatic Croatian coast have been neglected (for example there are no boat connections between Komiza and the mainland), the Vis project should be of importance for the Croatian economy, because it stresses the need for control of future developments and their integration within the ecological, environmental and cultural preservation of the Dalmatian islands.

Realising the importance of the project, the ministries of culture and tourism have given support, making it possible to extend it for the next four years and for it to serve as a model to be followed by other islands.

A resident of Vis, the architect Bosko Budisavljevic, who was in charge of this exceptionally well-organised symposium and seminar, deserves much praise for this project, together with his many voluntary collaborators. The active participation of the present mayor of Vis, who hosted several excellent evenings and attended the various presentation, was particularly welcome.

More about this symposium with details of all the participants can be found on the web page:

I am a Croatian laywer living in the UK. As I have recently witnessed many questions from Croatians living in th UK regarding their/our legal immigration status, once Croatia joins the EU (especially during the recent speech Mrs Pusic gave at the EBRD), I hereby wish to share with all my fellow Croatians a new document published last week at the UK Border Agency website.

The UK government has introduced to the Parliament the European Union (Croatian Accession) Bill on 18 October 2012. Accordingly, the Home Office has published a Statement of Intent setting out the transitional restrictions which it expects to apply to Croatian nationals working in the UK after 1 July 2013.

Please find attached the Statement of Intent. This document is not definitive, but it gives a useful indication of what to expect in terms of rights and obligations.

Vesna Pusić, Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister, gave the annual Chris Cviić memorial lecture on 17 October organised by the British-Croatian Society with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Her subject was Croatia in the EU.

A 17 member team of Croatian cyclists arrived in London for the Olympics after a 32 day cycle from Zagreb. They were welcomed by Lord Bates and taken to see the Houses of Parliament before cycling off to Stratford to complete their journey.

Preparations are under way for a major Croatian festival, Welcome Croatia, to take place in the UK from January to June, 2013. The programme is expected to include:The launch of a photography competition Croatia through the eyes of a visitorin February 2012. This will run over 12 months leading to an exhibition of theshort-listed prize winners in February 2013.

Croatia, Sporting Powerhouse will be shown just before the Olympics with a top sports personality to open it and then tour around the UK during the festival

a map listing all the Croatian cultural objects in the UK and how to find them

working with major museums there will be a programme to display significant Croatian pieces in museum collections during the festival with accompanying talks

a Croatian film festival

an academic seminar on the early history of Croatia

publishing a Croatian cookery book with associated food and wine events

a project with school children in the two countries working together to explore their differences and similarities

music events from classical to contemporary

a Croatian literary programme

The festival committee, chaired by Sir John Ramsden, consists of the British-Croatian Society, the Croatian Students and Young Professionals Network, the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia, the Oxford Association of Croatian Graduates, the International Trust for Croatian Monuments, the Croatian National Tourist Office and the British Croatian Chamber of Commerce.

Our Chair, Flora Turner, represented the British-Croatian Society at an event on February 1 to honour Dr Kathy Wilkes. Vivian Grisogono has sent this report. You can also watch the event by going to the link given at the bottom of this page.

Dr Kathy Wilkes honoured in Dubrovnik

Dr Kathleen Vaughan Wilkes (1946-2003) was an Oxford philosopher, lecturer at St. Hilda's, who achieved a special kind of eminence. Her formidable intellect was matched with indomitable courage whenever she was faced with physical danger and adversity. Details of her adventurous life and academic career were celebrated in the St. Hilda's Chronicle following her death.

Having become a Fellow of St. Hilda's in 1972 at the age of 26, she volunteered six years later to visit Prague, then behind the Iron Curtain, to give philosophy seminars, which were considered a dissident activity. She returned to then-Czechoslovakia several times, even after she had been refused a visa, and was tireless in helping Czech academics and students right up to the fall of the Iron Curtain in the 'Velvet Revolution' of 1989.

Kathy also spent time teaching in the then-Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, Brazil and China, but it was in former Yugoslavia that her courage and resources were put to the greatest test. She had become Chairman of the Executive Committee of Dubrovnik's Inter-University Centre in 1986, and spent time teaching there every year, as well as co-editing with William Newton-Smith an academic journal first entitled 'Dubrovnik Papers' and later `International Studies in the Philosophy of Science'. Kathy was in Dubrovnik in 1991 when the Serb-led Yugoslav National Army suddenly attacked the city with ruthless, sickening aggression.

For the 1996 -1997 edition of the St. Hilda's chronicle, Kathy wrote a moving article about what life in Dubrovnik was like under siege from September 1991 to January 1992. Her personal account evoked the full horror of the relentless attacks from air, sea and land against one of the most beautiful historical holiday resorts in the world. No journalist's report ever matched her descriptions in bringing home the full extent of the tragedy. On October 3rd 1991, Kathy spoke with calm determination to the BBC World Service for their Topical Reports: 'There's no water. There's no electricity. This is the only phone in Dubrovnik. There's fire all around. I think nobody including the Croatian President knows the extent of the damage here. The houses are on fire. About a quarter of Dubrovnik and the suburbs have been destroyed.' That was two months before the specially brutal aggression on December 6th 1991, the feast of St. Nicholas which marks the start of Catholic Christmas celebrations.

Kathy stayed in the city, helping the local people in every way possible, and sharing the misery and deprivations of the experience. She left only to collect aid to bring back to the city, travelling under very difficult circumstances. Besides being brilliant academically, she was very practical: she brought back medical supplies and even an ambulance while the siege was still on, and later on mine detectors when the area around Dubrovnik could be cleared. She seemed specially attuned to practical needs: in her article for the St. Hilda's Chronicle, written after the end of the aggression, she highlighted the disaster of Vukovar, a city which was suffering much worse than Dubrovnik, but without the international sympathy focused on the latter. She also pointed out that refugees were still crammed into Dubrovnik's surviving hotels, and the outlying villages were totally devastated.

Kathy received several honours for her courage, tenacity, vision and help, including one of Croatia's highest awards (Red Danice hrvatske), but the one she prized most was the honorary citizenship of Dubrovnik, which was granted in 1993. After her death, Kathy's ashes were scattered in the sea under the Lovrijenac fortress. In 2011 the city officials decided to mark their continuing appreciation of her unique contribution with a commemorative plaque on an historic square near the fortress, renaming the square after her. The formal unveiling ceremony was held on February 1st 2012 during the celebrations for the feast of Saint Blaise, Dubrovnik's patron saint. It was attended by a select group of people, including children too young to have known the war, alongside some of Kathy's old friends such as Mr Pero Poljanic, Dubrovnik's Mayor at the time of the siege; Mrs Berta Dragicevic, long-serving secretary of the Inter-University Centre; and Mrs Tea Batinic, owner of the Artur art gallery, in whose house Kathy stayed during the war. Four prominent people spoke movingly of her achievements from different standpoints: the present Mayor of Dubrovnik Mr Andro Vlahusic, the Town Council President Mrs Olga Muratti, Inter-University Centre Director Prof.dr.Krunoslav Pisk, and Mrs Flora Turner, Kathy's successor as Chairman of the British-Croatian Society.

One of our members has sent the following information about the recent Klapa Motovun concert in London:

The Klapa Motovun concert at St Martin in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, January 17, 2012 was a resounding success, ending with a standing ovation. For those of you who couldn't attend, here are three clips. For those of you who did, a reminder of the wonderful music. Enjoy and feel free to pass on the links.

The 2011 annual dinner of the British-Croatian Society featuring the City of Dubrovnik was held in the prestigious surroundings of the Oxford and Cambridge Club on Pall Mall, London on Saturday December 3. The dinner, attended by over 100 people including the Deputy Mayor of Dubrovnik Mr Niko Salja and his wife, was supported by the City of Dubrovnik. Dr Robin Harris, author of Dubrovnik: A History, gave a talk entitled The Historic Achievement of Dubrovnik (now printed in the second of the new series of booklets issued by the Society). A raffle at the dinner raised 640 GBP for this year's British-Croatian Society charity Napredak from Dubrovnik (www.hkdnapredak.com). The following is a translation from an article that appeared in the Dubrovacki Vjesnik newspaper on December 12, 2011:

The twentieth anniversary of the ruthless destruction of Dubrovnik is still remembered in London. The British-Croatian Society, supported by the City of Dubrovnik Tourist Board and many members and donors, held their traditional annual dinner this year dedicated to the memory of the victims of the war.The evening was organised in the classical ambience of the Oxford and Cambridge Club, preceded by an exhibition of documents from the history of Dubrovnik in the exhibition hall of our embassy. This was a logical prelude to dinner, where the main speaker was historian Robin Harris, the well-known author of books about Dubrovnik's past and present. At the main table were Deputy Mayor of Dubrovnik Niko Salja, who came with his wife, and hosts Branko Sorkocevic Sorge and the President of the British-Croatian Society, Mrs Flora Turner. Miso Mihocevic was a special guest of honour.The hall, which was filled to capacity, included Ivica Tomic, Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia in the UK, with his guests, Mr Andrew Kojakovic and his daughters, Lady Jadranka Beresford-Peirse and her family, the Frankopan family and many prominent Croats and their British friends.Also at the dinner was the Maestro Oliver Gilmour, recently a resident of Dubrovnik. This provided the opportunity for the Deputy Mayor to announce a new addition to the overall cultural offer of the City - a project entitled the Dubrovnik Summer Opera which will begin in June with the staging of Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte on Lokrum.A pleasant dinner at the elegant club finished with a raffle to raise funds for a charity supported by the British-Croatian Society.